This is the Justice, Not Charity! Haiti book diary. Allie123 and I are writing these book diaries because we became shocked by the truth of Haiti’s history and what really is needed to help the Haitians after the earthquake.
"It's as if Aristide was put in charge of a house that was falling apart and was expected to fix it. But then his enemies start setting fire to the back door, they send people with guns to attack the front door, and when these people finally manage to break in they said 'Look! He didn't wash the dishes in the sink! He never repaired the leak in the roof!' They made him spend all his time trying to put out the fire and to protect the door, and then once they got rid of him they said he was pushed out because he'd failed to repair the house." (Damming The Flood,
p 131.)
This is on the final three sections of the chapter; I'm cutting the third part short, because he describes the obstacles Preval faced after election, and is hopeful that they can be overcome.
The assault on Cite Soleil
Cite Soleil is the largest single neighborhood in Haiti. It isn't desirable land, it is low and floods frequently, and is easily physically isolated from the rest of Port-au-Prince.
To the coup government, Cite Soleil was both an asset and a liability. It works as an isolated dumping ground for the poorest of the poor, flocking in from the destitution of rural Haiti, and as a source of labor for the sweatshops of the morally repugnant elite (MRE). However it also holds about 5% of the electorate, and remains loyal to Aristide and Fanmi Lavalas. Aristide visited Cite several times, built a park, fixed up the main road, set up a literacy program, provided government jobs. With its isolation, large population, desperation, and strong FL support, it had the ability and the reason to defend itself strongly after the coup.
What to do, what to do? The Latortue coup government could have put a tiny amount of their shiny new internationalaid to continue to improve Cite along the lines of Aristide's programs - yeah, right. Or, they could stop all helpful programs, clamp down economically and physically, and send in troops of various sources to smother the results of these actions. So guess which they did?
The Boulos, Apaid, and Baker families (see MRE above) managed finally to recruit one Cite gang leader, Labanye. Aristide was able to temporarily make peace between Labanye and the rest of cite, but once he was kidnapped, that went out the window. Despite efforts by Cite leaders to reach an accommodation with the coup government, police raids and battles with the Labanye gang succeeded in conflating political resistance with criminality, at least enough to give the government a fig leaf. Dred Wilme managed finally in March 2005 to destroy Lebanye's gang. Now what could the government do to justify keeping the lid on?
A rash of kidnappings broke out, suspiciously linked to the police. The government turned Cite over to the UN troop presence, MINUSTAH, after the US and France put serious pressure on the UN to deal with Cite Soleil. MINUSTAH troops were pretty indiscriminate about who they shot at, but the finally killed Dred Wilme. (He is still regarded as a martyr in Cite, and huge crowds attended his funeral.) This did not break the opposition in Cite Soleil, and anarchic violence moved into other parts of the city, displeasing international bankers. This increased the threat of an election.
The elections of February 2006
OK, Aristide was gone; if Fanmi Lavalas could be kept out of the election, surely somebody from the "democratic opposition" could finally be elected! Father Gerard Jean-Juste was the preferred FL candidate, so he spent most of the time up to the election under arrest.
At first FL split on what to do - boycott, or find another candidate to back? Rene Preval was persuaded to run, and formed a party called Lespwa (Hope) from a couple of minor parties. FL did not run a candidate of their own, but encouraged FL supporters to voe for Preval.
The "democratic opposition" put pressure on the UN to suppress Cite Soleil for the election. Ribeiro, the UN commander, resigned in 2005 after some egregious violence in July 2005. He was replaced by a Brazilian general, Bacellar. Bacellar seems to have been better at resisting "do" demands. However, in January 2006, shortly before the elections, he mysteriously committed suicide, to the surprise of all who knew him. The "democratic opposition" had no time to crack down on Cite, and the residents voted.
Exit polls indicate Preval probably got about 62% of the overall vote. Surprise! The electoral commission lowered that to JUST under 50%. Immediate riots led them to reconsider their methods, and Preval was declared the winner with barely over 50% (right....).
Preval's second administration
This is the section that I can't bear to do in detail; at the time this version of the book was written, he had hopes of what Preval could do. He does point out the factors that would inevitably limit this. Preval faced the same kinds of international pressures that Aristide had. In addition, Lespwa elected him, but not a legislature. FL and sympathizers barely controlled the upper house, the "democratic opposition" had a majority in the lower.
allie123 can doubtless point out how much worse matters were in the 2010 election; FL was excluded, instead of just the head of the ticket being kept under arrest.
When are we ever going to do right by Haiti, and stop propping up the MRE?